Colors Meanings in Japanese Culture

Do you know how to add life to a sketch? Well yes, Squeezing out tubes in a color pallet would definitely help! You might not be a professional painter but still, those pieces of work could amaze you with their magnificent style portrayed with the help of a vast variety of colors. Talking about colors, not only do they add liveliness to someone’s piece of work but can also deepen the meaning of creation. Every color has a history in someone's culture. For now, let’s restrict ourselves to Japanese history and tradition to find out the value a color adds to their culture.

Japanese people are known for their politeness and helpfulness. They have a very rich culture that can be considered the reason for their sweet gestures and nice behavior. So let’s look at the different colors that are available, their history, and what they really mean to the rich Japanese culture.

The Royal Purple

Purple, a color that was expensive to extract was only used by the elite class of Japanese people. Shigusa , purple gromwell, a plant used for extraction of the latter is very difficult to grow and hence the expensive justifies the expensiveness of the purple-dyed cloth.

Green: The New Blue

Earlier Japanese people did not have different words for blue and green colors and they were assumed to be the same colors culturally. Both of them were pronounced as ‘ao’ which is now just used to identify the blue color. Afterward, the green color emerged as a different color pronounced as ‘Midori’. Japan’s old vocabulary stills reflect the older pronunciation of green like Aoba(green leaves) or aoume(green plums). This is the explanation of the use of ‘Ao Shingo’ for green traffic lights.

Protect Me, Red!

The color red was meant to protect the men in power from evil. Shinto shrine gates(torii) have the most common red shade in japan. This shade of red is called akani. Each shrine uses a different shade of red and akani is used to protect it from rust due to cinnabar mercury in it.

Akani is believed to protect it from evil and disaster. The red is also believed to increase the power of the spirits worshiped in the shinto religion. Red was loved by the samurai and was worn as a strength and power symbol in war fields. This was quite visible during the Japanese civil wars which took place from 1467 to 1568. Before lipsticks came into popularity, red was used as makeup in Japan. Safflowers were used as a base for lipsticks by noblewomen. For making traditional lipsticks, this flower is used to date and is believed to protect the beauty of women.

The White Death

This color was believed to be the symbol of purity in the ancient Japanese. It is believed to be linked to the spiritual world. This is the reason why Shinto priests and their female helpers wear mostly white garments. White was used as a standard color to be worn during funerals and mourning. While committing hara-kiri or seppuku, samurai wore white clothes. This color was not preferred usually on any other occasions. But it was after the Meiji period, white clothes were begun to be used in everyday life and black was used as the new mourning color. 

The Bottom Line

The perception and meaning of any color reflect the country’s history and its beliefs. We learned a lot about the historical background and some of the unusual facts for some important colors in Japanese culture. These colors might have a different meaning and another story in your country. Would you like to tell us some?

Written By - Vedanshi Saini

Edited By - Khaled Jamal